Quilt piecing with precision can & will become a habit! All it takes to become a very accurate quilter is accurate repetitive sewing.

Forming your quilt piecing sewing skills takes repetitive movements. At first the preparations to form the right sewing habits before you sew anything, seems like a waste of time, but it’s not a waste of time to do it right from the start.

List of 3 Videos

1. Precise Piecing Tips  [Focus on marking & sewing straight) Includes chain piecing

2. Quilting Get the Perfect 1/4″ Seam

3. Precision piecing Your Patchwork with Valerie Nesbitt.

As you’re stitching your seams keep in mind the placement of your needle, just to the right of an exact 1/4 inch line. This is called a scant 1/4 inch seam and its important to do this right.

This very slight 1 or 2 fabric thread widths from the 1/4 inch line adds up quickly when your sewing 4 to 8 seams horizontally or vertically in a single block.

Measuring the piece after you’ve sewn the pieces together helps insure your seams are correct for the type of fabric you’re piecing together.

This simple act of taking the time to measure will remind you to sew your stitches accurately.

Pressing before measuring helps you make accurate adjustments as needed to your 1/4 inch seam allowance.

The below video’s focus is on small pieces.

Prepare your pieces by first cutting them accurately. The next step accurately mark the pieces before you sew.

When you first begin sewing use marked lines until you can sew pieces as accurately with marked line as you can without.

HINT: If you’re sewing very accurate seams without marking them, you should stop and mark two or three pieces every so often to reset your own internal accuracy guide.

Keep in mind the same tips apply to larger piecing.

Measuring and trimming every piece as needed insure each unit will align with other units to form a perfect complete block.

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After stitching together two strips cut at 1 and 1/4 inches.

You’ll stitch them together,

Press the seam allowance to one side, & measure them to insure they are exactly 2 inches.

If they were cut accurately they should be 2 inches exactly.

If NOT! Adjust your seams slightly and repeat this process until you make it exactly 2 inches.

You may want to consider purchasing a throat plate with a single hole for the needle.

A throat plate with a slit in it for sewing zigzag stitches allows the fabric to be pulled and pushed up and down inside that wider opening, and that can cause your seams to be inaccurate.

Video after this has tips about sewing nested seams.

Video on the Next Page emphasizes sewing stitches straight from beginning to the end.

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